Saturday, September 24, 2005

Ownership drama

Boswell has a great column in today's Post on the ownership situation. Boswell points out that as owner of the Seattle Mariners Jeff Smulyan, who may be MLB's favorite in the ownership derby, didn't show himself to be an owner dedicated to winning and establishing strong community ties. Meanwhile, other groups, like those led by Fred Malek and the Lerner family, have lots of money and very strong ties to DC. Given that these DC-based groups will meet baseball's asking price, there is no reason why MLB should give the franchise to Smulyan, especially when, as Boswell points out, DC's political leaders would probably back away from a stadium deal if they sensed an inside deal to benefit a member of the old-boys' network.

Let's hope MLB reads Boswell's column and comes to its senses.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like I may have been right to have made the cynical bet with my boss. As I was disbelieving that MLB and the DC Council could actually bring a team to DC, my boss bet me a steak dinner that a team would be in Washington.

I modified the terms of the bet. I'll pay off if the team has a second opening day in DC.

Erik said...

This raises an important point. By choosing an insider, MLB may be giving DC politicians just the opportunity they want to demagogue this issue. We all remember how Linda Cropp misused the issue before the season to further her political aspirations. Does anyone doubt for a second that she's looking for an excuse to do it all over again? Why give her the chance when there are high quality alternatives to the choice of the old-boy network?